Beer Forum

Made a 2 qt. starter (1.040) on a stir plate with WY 2206 Bavarian Lager strain. Let it roll around 68 deg F for 48 hrs, then cold crashed for 2 days. Did not see the typical nice white layer of yeast settle out as usual when I do my starters and thought it was kind of curious. I pitched the yeast into the starter when it was cool and the packet was only 2 mos old.

Brewed up a low gravity helles to pitch this yeast into and when I decanted the starter wort it still tasted overly sweet. I took a gravity reading and it read around 1.030! WTF!!?? The starter wort was quite carbonated so I know the yeast did a bit of work on it, but I have never had a starter not completely ferment out the wort before. Pitched it anyway, and added 2 extra WL vials of German Bock yeast.

Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this with the WY 2206 recently?

Microscopic lazy bastard fungi...grumble, grumble....

They probably stopped fermenting when you crash cooled the starter.

Lager yeasts in general move slower, Next time give it a few more days and runs the starter around 55 the warm end of lager temps,

I have never had a problem making starters with any other lager yeasts before, or even this strain, in the past. It just seemed to be working much slower than others I have used. I have always followed JZ's and Palmer's advice with regards to lager starters with keeping them on the low end of ale fermentation temps in terms of starter temperatures (ie mid 60's or so, with ale strains around 70 F or so).

BrewerJ, why would 55 deg be a better option to roll with when making a lager starter. I do understand that lager yeasts typically ferment better at cooler temps for reduced ester formation, but when building up yeast for a starter don't you want a slightly warmer temperature than that to keep the yeast at optimal growth rates? I do agree that a couple more days should've been employed but I have never had to do that with any other lager yeast especially with a stirplate.

Well if you listen to any of the dan gordon lager episodes he talks about how warm temps can cause the yeast to mutate. Second if you keep it cool you wont shock the yeast when you pitch cold. True it will grow faster at warmer temps but then you will be shocking the yeast when you crash and pitch. You might of just got a bad pack, it happens. If you havn't had problems before then that would be my guess.

Yeah, I typically cold crash my starters (both lager and ale). For my lagers, I let the starter warm up a tad out of the fridge, then decant and pitch cold into my cooled wort (50 deg or so). It probably was just a lazy pack of buggers!